The Ashes of Worlds Read online

  Copyright © 2008 by WordFire, Inc.

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  Orbit

  Hachette Book Group USA

  237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017

  Visit our Web site at www.HachetteBookGroupUSA.com

  First eBook Edition: July 2008

  The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  ISBN: 978-0-316-03271-1

  Contents

  Chapter 1: Admiral Sheila Willis

  Chapter 2: King Peter

  Chapter 3: Chairman Basil Wenceslas

  Chapter 4: General Kurt Lanyan

  Chapter 5: Jess Tamblyn

  Chapter 6: Tasia Tamblyn

  Chapter 7: Celli

  Chapter 8: Queen Estarra

  Chapter 9: Nira

  Chapter 10: Prime Designate Daro’h

  Chapter 11: Faeros Incarnate Rusa’h

  Chapter 12: Beneto

  Chapter 13: Admiral Sheila Willis

  Chapter 14: Patrick Fitzpatrick III

  Chapter 15: Margaret Colicos

  Chapter 16: Captain Branson Roberts

  Chapter 17: Rlinda Kett

  Chapter 18: Celli

  Chapter 19: Beneto

  Chapter 20: Hyrillka Designate Ridek’h

  Chapter 21: Mage-Imperator Jora’h

  Chapter 22: Sirix

  Chapter 23: General Kurt Lanyan

  Chapter 24: Prime Designate Daro’h

  Chapter 25: Faeros Incarnate Rusa’h

  Chapter 26: Mage-Imperator Jora’h

  Chapter 27: Margaret Colicos

  Chapter 28: Orli Covitz

  Chapter 29: Sirix

  Chapter 30: King Peter

  Chapter 31: Caleb Tamblyn

  Chapter 32: Nira

  Chapter 33: Deputy Chairman Eldred Cain

  Chapter 34: King Peter

  Chapter 35: Tasia Tamblyn

  Chapter 36: Orli Covitz

  Chapter 37: General Kurt Lanyan

  Chapter 38: Adar Zan’nh

  Chapter 39: Mage-Imperator Jora’h

  Chapter 40: Osira’h

  Chapter 41: Sarein

  Chapter 42: Orli Covitz

  Chapter 43: Tasia Tamblyn

  Chapter 44: Sullivan Gold

  Chapter 45: King Peter

  Chapter 46: Mage-Imperator Jora’h

  Chapter 47: Sarein

  Chapter 48: Sirix

  Chapter 49: Margaret Colicos

  Chapter 50: Anton Colicos

  Chapter 51: Deputy Chairman Eldred Cain

  Chapter 52: Admiral Esteban Diente

  Chapter 53: Orli Covitz

  Chapter 54: Deputy Chairman Eldred Cain

  Chapter 55: Patrick Fitzpatrick III

  Chapter 56: Chairman Basil Wenceslas

  Chapter 57: Rlinda Kett

  Chapter 58: Caleb Tamblyn

  Chapter 59: Anton Colicos

  Chapter 60: Hyrillka Designate Ridek’h

  Chapter 61: Mage-Imperator Jora’h

  Chapter 62: General Kurt Lanyan

  Chapter 63: Sullivan Gold

  Chapter 64: Patrick Fitzpatrick III

  Chapter 65: Jess Tamblyn

  Chapter 66: Caleb Tamblyn

  Chapter 67: Tasia Tamblyn

  Chapter 68: Sirix

  Chapter 69: Sarien

  Chapter 70: Chairman Basil Wenceslas

  Chapter 71: Prime Designate Daro’h

  Chapter 72: Rlinda Kett

  Chapter 73: Chairman Basil Wenceslas

  Chapter 74: Sirix

  Chapter 75: Former Chairman Maureen Fitzpatrick

  Chapter 76: Patrick Fitzpatrick III

  Chapter 77: Hyrillka Designate Ridek’h

  Chapter 78: Osira’h

  Chapter 79: General Kurt Lanyan

  Chapter 80: Deputy Chairman Eldred Cain

  Chapter 81: Admiral Sheila Willis

  Chapter 82: Tal O’nh

  Chapter 83: Prime Designate Daro’h

  Chapter 84: Adar Zan’nh

  Chapter 85: General Kurt Lanyan

  Chapter 86: Deputy Chairman Eldred Cain

  Chapter 87: Faeros Incarnate Rusa’h

  Chapter 88: Rlinda Kett

  Chapter 89: Deputy Chairman Eldred Cain

  Chapter 90: Sullivan Gold

  Chapter 91: Patrick Fitzpatrick III

  Chapter 92: Deputy Chairman Eldred Cain

  Chapter 93: Sarien

  Chapter 94: Sirix

  Chapter 95: Adar Zan’nh

  Chapter 96: Mage-Imperator Jora’h

  Chapter 97: Sullivan Gold

  Chapter 98: Captain Branson Roberts

  Chapter 99: General Conrad Brindle

  Chapter 100: Mage-Imperator Jora’h

  Chapter 101: Anton Colicos

  Chapter 102: Nikko Chan Tylar

  Chapter 103: Del Kellum

  Chapter 104: Rlinda Kett

  Chapter 105: Patrick Fitzpatrick III

  Chapter 106: Mage-Imperator Jora’h

  Chapter 107: King Peter

  Chapter 108: Anton Colicos

  Chapter 109: Chairman Basil Wenceslas

  Chapter 110: Jess Tamblyn

  Chapter 111: Nikko Chan Tylar

  Chapter 112: Robb Brindle

  Chapter 113: Sarein

  Chapter 114: Anton Colicos

  Chapter 115: Mage-Imperator Jora’h

  Chapter 116: Tasia Tamblyn

  Chapter 117: Osira’h

  Chapter 118: Patrick Fitzpatrick III

  Chapter 119: King Peter

  Chapter 120: Del Kellum

  Chapter 121: Jess Tamblyn

  Chapter 122: King Peter

  Chapter 123: Sarein

  Chapter 124: Tasia Tamblyn

  Chapter 125: Celli

  Chapter 126: Sarein

  Chapter 127: Deputy Chairman Eldred Cain

  Chapter 128: King Peter

  Chapter 129: Sarein

  Chapter 130: King Peter

  Chapter 131: Patrick Fitzpatrick III

  Chapter 132: Jess Tamblyn

  Chapter 133: Tasia Tamblyn

  Chapter 134: Sarein

  Chapter 135: Chairman Basil Wenceslas

  Chapter 136: Sirix

  Chapter 137: Margaret Colicos

  Chapter 138: Chairman Basil Wenceslas

  Chapter 139: King Peter

  Chapter 140: Sirix

  Chapter 141: Chairman Basil Wenceslas

  Chapter 142: King Peter

  Chapter 143: Robb Brindle

  Chapter 144: Admiral Sheila Willis

  Chapter 145: Adar Zan’nh

  Chapter 146: Prime Designate Daro’h

  Chapter 147: Sirix

  Chapter 148: Robb Brindle

  Chapter 149: Tasia Tamblyn

  Chapter 150: Chairman Basil Wenceslas

  Chapter 151: Nikko Chan Tylar

  Chapter 152: Osira’h

  Chapter 153: Chairman Basil Wenceslas

  Chapter 154: Mage-Imperator Jora’h

  Chapter 155: King Peter

  Chapter 156: Robb Brindle

  Chapter 157: Jess Tamblyn

  Chapter 158: Deputy Chairman Eldred Cain

  Chapter 159: Tasia Tamblyn

  Chapter 160: King Peter

  Chapter 161: DD

  Chapter 162: Mage-Imperator Jora’h

  Chapter 163: Anton Colicos

  Chapter 164: Adar Zan’nh

 
Chapter 165: Queen Estarra

  Chapter 166: Margaret Colicos

  Chapter 167: Sullivan Gold

  Chapter 168: Nira

  Chapter 169: Orli Covitz

  Chapter 170: Patrick Fitzpatrick III

  Chapter 171: Margaret Colicos

  Chapter 172: Jess Tamblyn

  Chapter 173: King Peter

  Glossary

  Acknowledgments

  BOOKS BY KEVIN J. ANDERSON

  The Saga of Seven Suns

  Hidden Empire

  A Forest of Stars

  Horizon Storms

  Scattered Suns

  Of Fire and Night

  Metal Swarm

  The Ashes of Worlds

  Available from Wildstorm/DC Comics

  Veiled Alliances (graphic novel)

  To Rebecca Moesta

  Not just for this novel, but for all the books in the series and all the novels I’ve written. You have helped me find my Guiding Star not only in my writing, but in my life.

  THE STORY SO FAR

  The hydrogue war had ended with a devastating final battle at Earth. Adar Zan’nh sacrificed much of the Ildiran Solar Navy to destroy the deadly warglobes. Jess Tamblyn and Cesca Peroni led the wentals and the verdani to fight the hydrogues inside their gas-giant planets; the Roamer engineer Kotto Okiah developed a new weapon to shatter the diamond spheres. Finally, the defeated hydrogues were bottled up within their gas planets, where they could cause no further harm.

  The Earth Defense Forces, led by General Lanyan, had already been crippled in a revolt by the black robots, and the final battle around Earth smashed many more EDF ships. Sirix and his black robots hoped to use their stolen fleet to help the hydrogues achieve victory, but the tides of battle turned against them, and Sirix and his comrades were forced to run for their lives.

  The turmoil of the battle gave King Peter and Queen Estarra the opportunity to escape the increasingly irrational Chairman Wenceslas. With the aid of Estarra’s sister Sarein, Deputy Chairman Cain, and Captain McCammon of the royal guard, they slipped away from the Whisper Palace. The Teacher compy OX purged his precious memories to obtain the mental capacity needed to operate a small hydrogue derelict, and he flew them safely to Theroc. There, Peter and Estarra declared a new unified government for humanity, the Confederation. All green priests refused to serve the Hansa unless Basil Wenceslas resigned, which the Chairman would not do. Seeing few people he could trust, Basil resorted to more reactionary tactics. As Therons, Roamer clans, and orphaned Hansa colonies joined the Confederation, Chairman Wenceslas grew more and more isolated.

  On Llaro, the EDF had detained many refugees including Orli Covitz, Hud Steinman, Davlin Lotze, and many Roamer prisoners of war. While the EDF guards were waiting to be rotated home after the end of the hydrogue war, Llaro’s transportal walls activated and hordes of monstrous insect creatures marched through — the ancient race of the Klikiss, long thought to be extinct. They had returned from their distant Swarming and now wanted their colony worlds back.

  The long-lost xeno-archaeologist Margaret Colicos and her compy, DD, accompanied the Klikiss. Relying on her wits and the odd tune played by a small music box, Margaret had found a way to survive among them for many years. Now she became an interpreter for the hapless Llaro colonists as the Klikiss fenced the people into their colony town.

  Meanwhile, unaware that their hated creator race had returned, Sirix and his black robots attacked any former Klikiss world on which humans had established colonies. As replacements for DD, whom he had tried to reprogram, Sirix had wiped the memories of two other compies — PD and QT — and taught them how to kill humans without remorse. Believing that the former Klikiss planets belonged to them, the robots struck mercilessly, obliterating any settlements. Sirix had resurrected thousands of black robots over the years, and they were all ready to form a unified robot force to destroy humanity.

  Then the transportals activated on the colony Sirix had conquered, and a host of ravenous Klikiss marched through, immediately attacking the robot forces. With PD and QT, Sirix barely escaped this unexpected battle and was forced to eradicate the transportal and retreat to Maratha, an Ildiran world where the robots were establishing a powerful base of operations.

  On Ildira, the Mage-Imperator ordered Adar Zan’nh to launch a frantic program to rebuild the Solar Navy, erecting shipyards in orbit and diverting the resources of the Empire to the project. Zan’nh also made use of the innovative skills of the humans who had been forced to remain at Ildira, including Sullivan Gold and Tabitha Huck. With Gold’s administrative abilities and Huck’s engineering ideas, the manufacturing proceeded at a furious pace.

  Sullivan’s companion green priest Kolker felt isolated and confused. For a long time he had been cut off from his beloved telink with other green priests, and even after he was given access to a treeling, the sensation felt lacking to him. When he saw how the Ildirans — all Ildirans — were linked through thism, he wanted to understand how it worked. Lens kithmen rebuffed him, telling him that he could never grasp the thism, but Nira’s five half-breed children were able to show him the key. As Kolker struggled to understand, he finally comprehended in a way he had never dreamed. Incredible mental vistas opened for him; better still, he knew how to share his discovery. He converted Tabitha Huck and many of her coworkers at the shipyards, though Sullivan refused. Soon, with this unique synchronicity available, Tabitha and her crew led the Ildirans in phenomenally increased productivity.

  As the Solar Navy began to be restored, Jora’h’s daughter Yazra’h formed a plan with Adar Zan’nh to begin recapturing lost Ildiran worlds, particularly Maratha, which had been taken over by the black robots. Yazra’h convinced the human historian Anton Colicos and Rememberer Vao’sh to accompany the military force. This was a terrifying prospect for them, since Anton and Vao’sh had nearly died there in the robot takeover, and Vao’sh had barely survived the isolation madness when the two of them had flown alone to Ildira. But they agreed to witness the events in order to record them in the Saga of Seven Suns.

  Reaching Maratha, the Solar Navy bombarded the robot base, then went to the ground to wipe out the last machine survivors. While they were embroiled in battle, a large Klikiss swarmship arrived and dispatched thousands of warriors, who also meant to destroy the black robots. After the battle was won, a tense moment followed when the Klikiss insisted that they would reinhabit all of their own worlds, but Zan’nh held his ground, asserting that Maratha had never been a Klikiss planet, and the swarmship departed. Shortly afterward, Sirix and his black robot refugees arrived at what they expected to be a thriving base on Maratha, only to find utter devastation. Once again, they fled, seeing their plans fall apart.

  The black robots and the Klikiss were not the only threats to concern the Ildiran Empire. The mad Designate Rusa’h, after suffering a severe head injury during a hydrogue attack on Hyrillka, had led a destructive but ultimately unsuccessful revolt to overthrow the Mage-Imperator and establish his own thism network. Unwilling to surrender in defeat, Rusa’h flew his ship directly into one of Hyrillka’s suns. Instead of being incinerated, however, he was intercepted by the faeros, fiery entities that lived within stars.

  Though the Ildiran Empire believed him dead, Rusa’h — who had become a faeros incarnate — continued his work. In their war with the hydrogues, the faeros had suffered many terrible losses, millions of their fireballs eradicated, whole suns extinguished. But Rusa’h showed them new ways of fighting, and the faeros swiftly began to inflict great damage upon the hydrogues, weakening them before their battle with the allied forces around Earth.

  Gathering power, Rusa’h led the faeros first to the splinter colony of Dobro, where he confronted former Designate Udru’h, who had betrayed him. The ravenous faeros, needing to increase their numbers, burned Udru’h and stole his soulfire to create more newborn fiery entities. Jora’h’s eldest noble-born son, Daro’h, who was destined to become the new Prime Designate, faced faeros i
ncarnate Rusa’h, who delivered a warning for the Mage-Imperator. Before departing, Rusa’h declared that the whole Ildiran Empire would burn if necessary, until he removed the “false” Mage-Imperator. Daro’h raced back to Ildira to warn his father of the threat.

  Meanwhile, as the hydrogue-faeros battles had raged in Hyrillka’s sun, the young and inexperienced Designate Ridek’h had overseen the evacuation of Hyrillka, and all the refugees were taken to Ildira. Ridek’h had never expected to become a Designate responsible for an entire planet, but his mentor Tal O’nh, an old one-eyed veteran commander of the Solar Navy, tried to teach him to become a strong leader. Under orders from the Mage-Imperator, Ridek’h and Tal O’nh went to all the ravaged systems in the Horizon Cluster to reassure those who had suffered during the revolt.

  Rusa’h had also traveled across the Horizon Cluster, his faeros burning population after population. On his journey, he encountered Designate Ridek’h and Tal O’nh. Though they tried to escape, the faeros chased them down, surrounded their warliners, and incinerated their crews. Rusa’h burned Tal O’nh, blinding him, but he refused to kill young Ridek’h, claiming he would face the boy again. He left the scorched and empty warliners drifting in space, while he and the faeros headed off to Ildira.

  Basil Wenceslas, seeing his Hansa crumbling, grasped at straws. Because his captive green priest, Nahton, flatly refused to send or report any messages, he felt cut off. Basil called upon General Lanyan and Admiral Willis to recapture the worlds that were defecting. He dispatched Lanyan with military ships to secure the fledgling colonies recently established on abandoned Klikiss planets. Since they had small populations and no defenses, they were thought to be easy targets. For her part, Admiral Willis received orders to take an EDF battle group directly to Theroc, crush King Peter’s outlaw government, and take him into custody. Though she was reluctant to do this, Willis prepared to follow orders.

  Sarein, Captain McCammon, and Deputy Cain came up with a plan to warn King Peter about the impending invasion. They secretly freed Nahton, so that he could run to a treeling locked in a greenhouse and send a telink message to other green priests. While their involvement remained secret, Nahton was caught just after transmitting his message. The damage was done. Nahton tried to surrender, but the Hansa guards gunned him down. Basil Wenceslas seemed very smug about the results.

  Warned about the impending EDF assault, however, the Confederation members scrambled to find a way to defend themselves. Tasia Tamblyn and Robb Brindle had joined the Confederation to rebuild their military (much to the dismay of Robb’s father, Conrad Brindle, who insisted on remaining loyal to the Hansa). Under their guidance, and with the help of Kotto Okiah, new military-grade ships were being built, but that small fleet would not be enough to deflect an EDF battle group. Estarra and her sister Celli recalled the gigantic verdani battleships, led by their brother Beneto, who had fused himself into one of the giant trees. When Admiral Willis’s ships arrived, they suddenly found themselves facing not only a surprisingly vigorous Confederation military defense, but also Jess Tamblyn and Cesca Peroni’s wentals, and the huge thorny treeships. Knowing she could not win, and sure that this invasion had been a bad idea from the start, Willis retreated and returned to the Hansa.